Friday, June 20, 2014

Supposed to be going to the Milwaukee Zoo for the first time since moving out here tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked. I'm a big zoo guy, and I think it's a disgrace to myself and my own existence that I haven't made it to a zoo that I live 15 minutes away from in 6+ years. If I had serious money, I would build and open my own zoo where all the animals had generic people names. You can't try and tell me you wouldn't want to go see a hippo named Steve and a kangaroo named Walter. Now onto the links!

The trade deadline is now less than 6 weeks away, and the engines on the rumor mill have started churning. On Wednesday, Brian Cashman discussed the Yankees' plans for the deadline with Ken Davidoff, saying "we usually make moves every year, so I expect to make moves" when asked what he expected. As for how aggressive the Yankees will be, I guess this statement from Cash sums it up best:

“I feel that we do have the ability to make trades if that’s a route we so choose. How we line up with other clubs, I don’t know … but I definitely have people that are wanted within the industry. But we want those guys, too. We’ll see.”

Cash is no fool when it comes to playing the media game. He isn't going to tip his hand. But we all know what the Yankees' biggest needs are (starting pitcher, infielder/backup first baseman, right fielder) and we know they're going to look to fill some of those needs. It's far too early to make any rational predictions, but there are already a couple rumors that popped up this week involving the Yanks. Here's a quick trip around the early deadline rumor mill.

Why Johnson was even being asked to bunt in that situation is beyond me, but the good news is that X-rays were negative and the injury is bruises instead of breaks. Joe seemed like he had been coming around to the idea of going with Johnson more and Solarte less, evidenced by his decision to start KJ last night. A quick recovery to get Johnson's bat back in there would be the best possible outcome here.

Thanks, Toronto! See you again next time! Enjoy the flight! You kids get home safe!

Game Notes:

- The scoring was early and often against Blue Jay starter Drew Hutchison. Brett Gardner doubled to lead off the game for the Yanks and scored on an Ellsbury sac fly in the 1st, Carlos Beltran worked his way around and scored on a Kelly Johnson sac fly in the 2nd, then sac flied Ellsbury home himself in the 3rd.

- In between all the saccing (sacking? sacing?), David Phelps gave up a 2-run home run to Melky Cabrera in the top of the 3rd to keep the Jays close. Those were the only runs he'd allow in 7 very good innings.

- Not that he didn't have to work for them. Toronto put a runner on base in all but 2 innings and put a runner in scoring position with no outs in the 5th. Phelps handled the trouble well every time and he punctuated the outing by K'ing the final 2 batters of the 7th.

- The Yanks tacked on for him with a Beltran RBI double in the 5th, a Derek Jeter RBI groundout in the 6th, and a Yangervis Solarte bases loaded walk in the 7th. Toronto just couldn't keep them off the basepaths. Story of the game.